WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Forget the “Big Three” for one weekend at least. Chase Elliott finally has the big one.

Elliott, the 22-year-old son of racing legend Bill Elliott, led the final 34 laps of Sunday afternoon’s Go Bowling at The Glen on the road course at Watkins Glen International for the first victory of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career after eight runner-up finishes.

“Holy cow, what a thrill,” Chase Elliott said. “Golly, I don’t know what to say. Just so thrilled, so emotional, so much relief. Working on three years and hadn’t won one. I came here with a great opportunity today and was I was able to get it done.”

The 90-lap race came down to a two-driver battle between reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. and Elliott over the final 20 laps.

With a lap and a half left, Truex missed the exit of the Inner Loop and Elliott gained some breathing room. Elliott gave most of his lead right back at the start of the final lap when he started to wheel-hop in Turn 1. He recovered in time to maintain the lead before winning by 7.5 seconds when Truex ran out of fuel.

“I started to wheel-hop and I knocked it out of ear to not spin out,” Elliott said. “Luckily I had a big enough gap where he couldn’t get me. What a day.”

Truex, who was seeking a third consecutive road-course victory after winning at Sonoma Raceway in June, was able to limp home to second place.

“He missed Turn 1 on the final lap, but I missed the Inner Loop on the final lap and lost five car lengths to him, so when he made that mistake in (Turn) 1, I was too far back to capitalize,” Truex said. “We ran out of gas anyway coming off of Turn 5 that last lap, so it was really all a moot point. He was going to win regardless.”

Crew chief Alan Gustafson, who celebrated his 43rd birthday Sunday, said he talked to Elliott before the race about saving fuel at any chance. It turned out they had just enough to make it to the checkered flag and Elliott said he was happy his victory came down to racing instead of fuel mileage.

“Martin kind of screwed our plan up, so we didn’t get to save much gas, and he put a lot of pressure on us,” Gustafson said.

Kyle Busch held the lead until a mishap during a pit stop put only eight gallons of fuel into his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota during a pit stop severely damaged his hopes. He had to come back into the pits a lap later to get a full tank.

"Sounds familiar," said Busch, a two-time winner of the race. "Every year we come here, we have a fast car and fail to execute, whether that's just called bad luck or whatever. Last year we had a lug nut get stuck in the caliper. This year we had fueling problems. It never eases to amaze me."

Busch, who had to come back in a lap later to get a full tank, managed to fight his way from 33rd to third.

"It was a heck of a lot harder than it should have been," he said of his day. "But that was the predicament we were put in, and we had to go to work. I certainly gave Joe his money's worthy today."

Elliott, making the 99th start of his Cup career, ended up running out of fuel himself on the celebration lap. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson gave Elliott a push back around. Elliott said he had been planning to do a burnout in front of his father when he ran out of fuel.

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Chase Elliott, the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, was born Nov. 28, 1995. The younger Elliott won the 2014 Xfinity Series championship and became a full-time Sprint Cup driver in 2016, taking over the No. 24 car for the retired Jeff Gordon.
Mike DiNovo, USA TODAY Sports

Chase Elliott (24) crosses the finish line at Michigan International Speedway just behind Joey Logano on June 12, 2016. Logano beat Elliott .889 seconds to prevent the rookie from scoring his first career Sprint Cup Series win.
Mike DiNovo, USA TODAY Sports

Rookie Chase Elliott became the youngest driver to win the Daytona 500 pole on Feb. 14, 2016. Elliott was 20 years, 2 months and 17 days old on the day of pole qualifying.
Jasen Vinlove, USA TODAY Sports

NASCAR driver Chase Elliott is congratulated by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the end of the DAV 200 Honoring America's Veterans at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale on Saturday, November 8, 2014.
David Wallace, The Republic

Chase Elliott with his parents Cindy and Bill after winning the O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway in April 2014. It was his first win on the national touring series.
Chris Graythen, Getty Images

“Probably one of the many cool things about today was Jimmie Johnson pushed me back to the front straightaway,” Elliott said. “He’s been a hero of mine for a long time and he’s been a big supporter of mine, a guy I leaned on a lot through some of those hard days.”

The victory ended a streak of 37 consecutive races without a Cup win for Hendrick Motorsports, which collected its 250th win in the premier series.

Like his son, Bill Elliott’s first career Cup victory came on a road course, during the final race of the 1983 season at Riverside (Calif.). Bill Elliott served as a spotter for Chase in Sunday’s race and gave him a hug in victory lane.

“I tried not to get any emotion at all there the last 20 laps or so. Just kind of watch hard and see what people were doing,” Bill Elliott said.

"I'm proud of him, proud of the team. They've done a good job. They've worked really hard the last two and a half years to put this together and (Rick) Hendrick has done a lot for this organization and done a lot for racing. Proud to see him get back from almost a year ago when Kasey (Kahne) won at Indy."

Coming into the weekend, the “Big Three” of Busch, Truex and Kevin Harvick had combined to capture 16 of 21 Cup races this season, with Busch and Harvick having won six times each.

Truex won the race's first stage (laps 1-20). Elliott was the winner of the second stage (21-40), eliciting a loud roar from the crowd.

"That was the coolest thing I've ever seen," Elliott said of the response.

The win also will send Elliott into the 16-driver field for the 10-race playoffs. He is 11th overall in points. Busch remained atop the standings with 934 points, including 35 playoff points. Harvick, who took 10th Sunday, is second at 864 (33) and Truex is third with 813 (27).

Joey Logano had the shortest day of any driver after winning the Xfinity Series race Saturday at the track. Logano ended up in the wall on the second lap after making contact with Kyle Larson. Once the team took the car into the garage, Logano's day was over.